Hwm- Early Middle Ages 1100Ce- 02

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Roman Chant- general info

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One of the great treasures of Western Civilization

a) Memorial to religious faith in the Middle Ages
b) Embody the sense of community and esthetic sensibility of the period
c) Served as the source and inspiration for much of Western art music up to the 16th
Century

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Roman Chant - description and features

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Cannot be separated from their ceremonial contest and purpose
a) Plainchant is musical prayer - heightened speech
b) It is the text which gives form to the musical delivery
c) The Liturgy - body of texts and rites that make up a sacred service - sets the type of
chant according to the solemnity of the occasion
(1) solemnity of the occasion
(2) How text function within the ritual
(3) Who is performing the chant - soloist, choir, congregation

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When and how did Roman chant develop?

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Chant and Liturgy developed over many centuries originating in the Middle ages
a) Originally through oral tradition
b) Later written and codified
(1) Pope Pius V in 1570 issued a Missal that fixed the texts & rites of the Mass to
reflect the Council of Trent (Tridentine liturgy) held in force till Second Vatican
Council
(2) Chant melodies are preserved in hundreds of manuscripts
i) Almost identical between documents of different eras and locations
ii) Often attributed to the "one source" of St. Gregory
iii) Probably due to oral tradition which followed precise formulas for recitation
c) Usage of chant stopped with Second Vatican Council in 1962-65

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What did chant notation coincide with?

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Systematic notation of chant melodies coincided with a campaign by the Frankish
monarchs to consolidate their kingdom
a) Uniform Liturgy and body of music to bind their entire poputation of worshipers
b) Notation ensured the chants would be sung uniformly throughout the kingdom
c) Notation was both a result of striving for uniformity and a means of perpetuating
that uniformity

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Chant types, forms and classes

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Classes
a) Text Classification
(1) Biblical Texts
i) prose texts
ii) poetical texts
(2) Non Biblical Texts
i) prose texts
ii) poetical texts
b) Performance Classification
(1) Antiphonal - alternating choirs
(2) Responsorial - soloist alternating with a choir
(3) Direct - without alternation
c) Note - Syllable relation
(1) Syllabic - each syllable has a single note
(2) Melismatic - long melodic passage on a single syllable
(3) These are not clear cut - chant may have passages alternating syllabic with
melismatic parts

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Chant Recitation Formulas

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a) Tenor
(1) single reciting note or "tenor
(2) for reciting prayers and reading from the bible - on border line between speech
and song
b) Psalm Tones
(1) One tone for each of eight church modes
(2) Plus one extra tone called Tonus peregrinus (wandering tone)

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Antiphons

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a) Originally intended to be sung by a group so majority are: syllabic, stepwise
movement, limited range, and simple rhythmically
b) Earliest were a verse or sentance with own melody and repeated after every verse
of a psalm or canticle
c) Later only the opening part of the antiphon was sung before the psalm with entire
antiphon performed after the psalm

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Responsory

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a) A short verse sung by the soloist, repeated by the choir before a prayer or a short
sentence of scripture, and repeated again by the choir at the end of the reading
b) Originally sung by the choir at the end of the verse (similar to the antiphon)

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Antiphonal Psalmody

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a) Appears in the Introit and Communion of the Mass
b) Originally the Introit was a complete psalm with its antiphon
c) Introit was later shortened to the original antiphon and single psalm verse
d) Communion is a short chant often of only one scriptural verse.

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Proper Chants of the Mass

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(Variable portions of the Mass - change according to
season, feast & commemoration dates)

a) Tracts
(1) Originally a solo song
(2) Longest chants in the Liturgy
i) longest texts
ii) melody extended by melismatic figures
b) Graduals
(1) Responsorial
(2) Melodies are more florid than Tracts
(3) Soloist begins the refrain, followed by single verse of psalm - soloist begins the
refrain, choir continues, verse sung by soloist, choir joins with the last phrase
c) Alleluias
(1) Responsorial
(2) A refrain on the single word "alleluia", a psalm verse, followed by a repetition
of the refrain
d) Offertories
(1) Originally an antiphonal chant but today no part of the original psalm remains
and what must have been the original antiphon is performed as a responsorial
chant by soloist and choir
(2) Similar in style to the Graduals

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Ordinary Chants of the Mass

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(The fixed parts of the Mass - since 14th Century, almost
all polyphonic compositions called "Mass" are settings of the Ordinary only)
a) Agnus Dei
(1) Form is ABA - determined by the text
(2) Sometime the music for all 3 sections is nearly the same (AA'A)
b) Sanctus - likewise divided into three parts (ABB')

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Later Chant Developments

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1. General Trends
a) Between 5th & 9th Century peoples of Western & Northern Europe converted to
Christianity
b) The official "Gregorian" chant was established in the Frankish Empire before the
middle of the 9th Century
c) From this point to nearly the close of the Middle Ages all important developments
in European music took place north of the Alps
(1) Muslim conquest of Syria, North Africa, & Spain
(2) Rise of cultural centers in central & western Europe
(3) Establishment of schools in Ireland, Scotland, and what is now Germany &
Switzerland
(4) Resurgence of Latin Culture in England
(5) Revival of education in the Frankish Empire (Carolingian Renaissance)
d) Same period saw the rise of secular monodic song and the earliest experiments in
polyphony

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New Forms

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a) Tropes
(1) Originated as newly composed additions, usually in neumatic style and with
poetic texts, to antiphonal chants of the Proper of the Mass
(2) Three Kinds of Tropes
i) new words & music add to a regular chant
ii) music only, extending melismas or adding new ones
iii) text only, added to existing melismas
(3) Used until the Council of Trent banned them from the liturgy
b) Sequences
(1) 10th Century long melodies without text or with one or more texts
(2) When the melodies are melismas, the word "alleluia" usually appears at the
beginning of the music
(3) Long melismas of this sort are also found attached to the Alleluia of the Mass
i) as amplifications
ii) elaborate new compositions
(4) Sequence settings
i) phrase of music set to a single text
ii) followed by two phrases of music each set to two different texts
a- had same number of syllables
b- same pattern of accents
iii) final phrase had a single text
(5) The sequence was an important creative outlet from the tenth to the thirteenth
centuries (and later)
i) popular sequences were imitated and adapted for secular genres
ii) considerable mutual influence between sequences and types of both semisacred
& secular music - both vocal & instrumental
(6) Banned by the Council of Trent
c) Liturgical Drama
(1) Easter & Christmas plays were the most common
(2) Music consisted of a number of chants strung together, with processions and
actions that approach theater

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Medieval Theory and Practice

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Treatises in the Carolingian era and in the later Middle ages were much more
oriented toward practice than earlier writings
a) Boethius was still mentioned with reverence
b) Problems of notating, reading, classifying, and singing plainchant
c) Improvising & composing early polyphony
d) Formal education in medieval times was mainly oriented toward practical matters -
musical treatises reflect this attitude

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Church Modes

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a) Developed gradually and not all stages can be traced
b) Complete form by 11th Century encompassed a system of eight modes
(1) Absolute Pitch was a concept foreign to plainchant and to the Middle Ages in
general
(2) Differentiated according to the position of the whole tones and semitones in a
diatonic octave built on a final (usually last note in the melody
(3) Identified by numbers and grouped in pairs
i) odd-numbered modes called "authentic"
ii) even-numbered modes called "plagal" (collateral)
iii) plagal had same final as its corresponding authentic mode
c) Modes became a means for classifying chants and arranging them in books for
liturgical use
(1) Many chants existed before the theory of Modes evolved
(2) Modality of actual chant melodies does not entirely conform to modal theory

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Solmization

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a) 11th Century Monk - Guido of Arezzo proposed a set of syllables to teach sight
singing
b) Guidonian Hand was a visual aid to the system

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Notation

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a) Sometime before the middle of the 9th Century, signs called nuemes were placed
above the words
(1) "/" an ascending melodic line
(2) "\" a descending line
(3) "/\" ascending & descending
b) By the 11th Century Guido of Arezzo was describing a staff then in use
(1) Letters indicated the lines for f, c', and sometimes g
(2) These eventually became our modern Clef signs
c) Enabled scribes to notate relative pitches precisely
d) Freed music from its dependence on oral transmission
e) Crucial for the history of Western Music as the invention of writing was for the
history of language

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Non-liturgical and Secular Monody

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1. Early Secular Genres
a) Oldest written specimens of secular music are songs with Latin text
(1) The Goliard songs from 11th & 12th Centuries
i) named after a (probably) mythical patron - Bishop Golias
ii) were students or free clerics who migrated from one school to another in
days before the great universities were founded
iii) their vagabond way of life was celebrated in song and were gathered
together numerous manuscript collections
(2) Conductus from the 11th & 12th Centuries
i) straddle a vague dividing line between secular & sacred music
ii) by end of 12th Century the term applied to any serious non liturgical Latin
song with a metrical text on any sacred or secular subject
iii) Important feature is - as a rule - its melody was newly composed, not
borrowed or adapted from plainchant
(3) Songs with Vernacular Text
i) secular spirit of the Middle Ages comes through clearly
ii) chanson de geste (song of deeds) is earliest type - an epic poem,
recounting deeds of national heros, sung to simple melodic formulas

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Early Music Performers- Jongleurs

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(1) Sang the chanson de geste and other secular songs
i) A class of professional musicians
ii) First appeared about the 10th Century
(2) In the 11th Century, they organized into brotherhoods which later developed
into guilds of musicians
i) They sang, played, and danced to songs composed by others or taken from
the popular repertory of the period
ii) Their professional traditions & skills played an important role in the
development secular music in western Europe - spreading the music of the
troubadours & trouveres

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Troubadours and Trouveres

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(1) Were poet-composers in what is now the south of France and spoke Provencal
- the Trouveres were their equivalent in northern France and spoke langue
d'oil the medieval French dialect that became modern French.
(2) Neither were a well defined group
(3) Flourished in aristocratic circles - but artists of lower birth could accepted into a
higher social class on grounds of their talent
(4) Songs are preserved in collections called chansonniers

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Minnesinger

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(1) German school of knightly poet-musicians flourishing between the 12th & 14th
Century
(2) Used the troubadours as a model

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Meistersinger

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(1) Succeeded the Minnesinger - but tradesmen and artisans of German Cities
(2) The Meistersinger guild had a long life finally dissolving in the 19th Century

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Medieval Instrumental Music

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1. Dances in the Middle Ages were accompanied both by songs & instrumental music
2. Estampies
a) Earliest known examples of an instrumental repertory
b) Reaches back far beyond the 13th Century
3. Probably all the instrumental music of the early Middle Ages was associated with
singing or dancing

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Medieval Instruments

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1. Harp - oldest characteristically medieval instrument
2. Vielle - prototype of the Renaissance viol and modern violin
3. Organistrum - "three stringed viele" sounded by a revolving wheel with strings
stopped by rods not player fingers
4. Psaltery - type of zither played by plucking or more often striking the strings
5. Lute - Brought to Spain by Arab conquerors but did not become common elsewhere
much before the Renaissance
6. Wind Instruments
a) Flutes both recorder and transverse types
b) Shawms - double reed instruments
c) Trumpets
d) Bagpipes - which were the universal folk instrument
7. Organs
a) Portative - worn with strap, one hand to pump, one to work keys
b) Positive - could be carried but had to set on table to be played, required one
person to work the pump